Why this Galveston murder trial continues to haunt Robert Durst 15 years later

The killing of Morris Black continues to haunt Robert Durst as he faces an upcoming murder trial in a different case in Los Angeles Superior Court. Durst was acquitted of the Morris killing in 2003, despite admitting he dismembered the man. However, Judge Mark Windham has allowed prosecutors to present evidence in that case for the upcoming trial.

The killing of Morris Black continues to haunt Robert Durst as he faces an upcoming murder trial in a different case in Los Angeles Superior Court. Durst was acquitted of the ... more

Photo: Jae C. Hong, AP

Photo: Jae C. Hong, AP

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PHOTOS: The trial of Robert Durst

The killing of Morris Black continues to haunt Robert Durst as he faces an upcoming murder trial in a different case in Los Angeles Superior Court. Durst was acquitted of the Morris killing in 2003, despite admitting he dismembered the man. However, Judge Mark Windham has allowed prosecutors to present evidence in that case for the upcoming trial.

The killing of Morris Black continues to haunt Robert Durst as he faces an upcoming murder trial in a different case in Los Angeles Superior Court. Durst was acquitted of the ... more

Photo: Jae C. Hong, AP

Why this Galveston murder trial continues to haunt Robert Durst 15 years later

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Real estate heir Robert Durst has already admitted to dismembering his former Galveston County neighbor Morris Black, but a jury never found him guilty of fatally shooting the man during a 2003 trial.

Fifteen years later, a judge has allowed prosecutors in Los Angeles County to rehash the evidence during an upcoming trial in Los Angeles Superior Court, where Durst has been charged with killing his friend, Susan Berman, in 2000. Prosecutors are also looking to tie him to his wife's disappearance in 1982, court records show.

Superior Court Judge Mark Windham made the decision during a hearing on Tuesday in response to a 27-page motion claiming Durst is responsible for all three deaths.

His Houston-based defense attorney, Dick DeGuerin, said the ruling could mean they're "going to have to try the Galveston case all over again."

"These Hollywood prosecutors are very critical of our hometown Galveston prosecutors, and they think they could have done a better job," he told Chron.com on Thursday. "That flies in the face of fundamental fairness...and the fact that 12 jurors unanimously said hes not guilty."

DeGuerin said he wasn't sure whether he would challenge the ruling ahead of the Sept. 3 trial.

Despite the fact that Durst has only been officially charged in one killing, motions filed by Los Angeles County prosecutors paint a detailed narrative accusing Durst of killing his wife Kathie in 1982 and engaging in a violent cover-up scheme years later.

The documents claim he killed his wife in their New York home "after years of exerting power and control" over her. He then enlisted his best friend, Susan Berman, to help cover up the crime, the documents say.

Nearly 20 years after Kathie's disappearance, in 1999, New York authorities re-opened the investigating into her disappearance. Durst learned that the local press planned to publicize the update, so he fled to to a low-rent studio apartment in Galveston, where he posed as an elderly mute woman with a fake name, prosecutors say.

From there, prosecutors say he began his "master plan" to cover up his wife's killing. Fearing Berman would disclose his involvement in Kathie's death, prosecutors say he made the 650-mile journey to her home and shot her in the back of the head at point-blank range.

Months later, in Sept. 2001,prosecutors say he tied the last loose end when he shot and killed the only person who knew his true identity in Galveston, his close friend and neighbor Morris Black.

"Defendant's crimes throughout 2000-2001 were the manifestations of his same common design and plan to escape detection for his involvement in the death of his missing wife Kathie," court documents say.

In a 2003 trial in Galveston County, Durst admitted to dismembering the man and dumping his body into Galveston Bay, but his defense team claimed it wasn't related to Morris' death. They said Morris was accidentally killed in a struggle over a gun and described the dismemberment as a postmortem decision. A 12-member Galveston County jury acquitted him of the killing.

According to the Associated Press, Judge Windham said he would allow the evidence in Black's killing because "the events seem to be intertwined." He said jurors would have to decide whether Berman and Black's killing were part of an effort to dodge New York authorities.

His wife's body has never been found.

For Durst's defense team, the admission of the old evidence "dirties up the case," DeGuerin said.

"What happened in Galveston to Morris Black has nothing whatsoever to do with whether Bob Durst killed Susan Berman," he said. "Bob didn't kill Susan and he doesn't know who did, but if they start piling on all kinds of crap, then the jury is going to say 'Well this is all too much ... and we're going to convict.'"